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M.L.S. Hot Stove: Red Bulls Re-Sign Lindpere, and More

By Jack Bell January 31, 2012 5:06 pmJanuary 31, 2012 5:06 pm

3:13 p.m.|Update

An update to yesterday’s update … in fact, Luke Rodgers has not received a new U.S. work visa. The story from England is that Rodgers overstayed his visa from last year by several days as the Red Bulls completed their 2011 season.

4:24 p.m.|Update

The Red Bulls Wednesday morning said that the work visa for Luke Rodgers had been approved. The English striker is expected to join the team in Mexico soon, possibly by the end of the week, though the club did not have a definite date.

“I am very happy to continue my career as a Red Bull,” Lindpere said in a statement issued by the club. “I have enjoyed my time in M.L.S. over the past two seasons. The support from the fans has been sensational and I hope to help bring an M.L.S. Cup to New York this season.”

Lindpere started all 34 of the club’s regular-season games last year and even earned a callup to Estonia’s national team as it attempted to qualify for this summer’s European Championship in Poland and Ukraine. Estonia failed to qualify. Lindpere was voted the team’s most valuable player by his teammates in 2010 and has emerged as a fan favorite at Red Bull Arena. The tenacious Lindpere was (and probably still is) one of the best bargains in M.L.S., where he earned $125,000 in guaranteed compensation last season according to figures from the union that represents the league’s players. He had seven goals and seven assists while setting a team record in minutes played with 3,048 (only 12 minutes short of playing every minute of every game).

“Joel has been an important part of our progress over the last two seasons and has become one of our most popular players because of his work rate, performance and commitment to the club,” General Manager and Sporting Director Erik Soler said in a statement. “We wanted to reward him with a new contract to recognize his efforts and are excited that we agreed to a new contract with him. We look forward to having him as a Red Bull in the coming years, as we aim to win the M.L.S. Cup.”

The re-signing of Lindpere was the latest move by the Red Bulls as they go about remaking their back line. The club was unable to reach an agreement with the German veteran Frank Rost, who played part of last season for the club as a designated player. Instead, the Red Bulls drafted Ryan Meara out of Fordham (Meara’s great-grandfather Charlie Meara had a cup of tea with the New York Yankees in 1914!) and then Jeremy Vuolo, who played at Syracuse, from Oulu of Finland.

On Monday, the club announced that is had acquired the rights to the Colombian defender Wilman Conde from the Chicago Fire. Conde, 29, had been an object of fascination for the Red Bulls since the days of Coach Juan Carlos Osorio. The signing of Conde came after Tim Ream’s transfer to Bolton Wanderers of the English Premier League. It is likely that Conde will start in central defense with another new acquisition, Markus Holgersson from Helsingborg in Sweden. The Red Bulls also signed Stephen Keel, who played well toward the end of last season, to a new deal.

“One of our off-season priorities was to solidify our defense and adding Wilman certainly does that,” Soler said in a statement. “During his stint in Major League Soccer, Wilman quickly established himself as one of the League’s top defenders and he will play an immediate role in our back line. He is strong, physical and experienced and he will be a tremendous addition to our club.”

Conde was most recently with Mexican first division team, Atlas de Guadalajara, where he made 13 appearances and scored 2 goals. Befpre joining Atlas, Conde was a major contributor to the Chicago Fire from 2007-10. Over his three-plus seasons, Conde played in 73 games, starting 66 with four goals and four assists.

The Red Bulls, however, remain a bit thin in the midfield. Though Rafael Marquez will play a defensive and distribution role in front of the back line, Soler and Hans Backe continue to talk about a possible acquisition (perhaps the club’s third designated player) during the summer transfer period. The veteran German midfielder Michael Ballack, 35, currently at Bayer Leverkusen, is known to be interested in moving to an M.L.S. club. And although he could be headed to Montreal, according to published reports, a person with impeccable contacts in the soccer world said that Ballack wants to come to New York — and would only come to M.L.S. if he could play for the Red Bulls.

The person said, however, that the Red Bulls are not interested in Ballack and instead have set their sights on the acquisition of the controversial Irish attacking midfielder Stephen Ireland, 25, who currently plays for Aston Villa in England.

After two weeks training in Little Falls, N.J., the team has left for Mexico, where it will remain until Feb. 15.

Around the League

Two Scotsman walk into a bar in Portland, Ore., … the Timbers’ Scottish coach, John Spencer, will now have someone around who speaks his language (or thereabouts) after the club acquired striker Kris Boyd from a Turkish club. Boyd, 28, is the career-leading scorer in Scotland’s Premier League with 164 goals in 296 games since his debut with Kilmarnock in August 1999. He recently played (ever so briefly) for Eskisehirspor in Turkey. The Timbers hope that Boyd can produce goals where Kenny Cooper, who was traded to the Red Bulls, fell short last season. … Philadelphia’s first-choice goalkeeper, Faryd Mondragon, 40, has left the Union after one season to return to his native Colombia.

In Colorado, the Japanese defender Kosuke Kimura, tried unsuccessfully to renegotiate his contract with the notoriously spendthrift Rapids. Kimura remains one of the league’s bargains — he earned a mere $63,525 last season. He could leave after this season, but his options would be limited in Europe because of visa issues and his lack of experience for his country’s national team. … John Rooney, the former Red Bulls player and the brother of the Manchester United star Wayne, has signed on with Orlando City of the United Soccer Leagues First Division. … Orlando City, one of the better run club’s in U.S.L., also completed the sale of last season’s league M.V.P., Yordany Álvarez, to Real Salt Lake. Álvarez defected from Cuba during the Olympic qualifying tournament in 2008. He played five games on loan to R.S.L. at the end of last season. … After a brief training stint with Bolton in England, the French striker Sebastien Le Toux is back in M.L.S. after having been acquired by Vancouver from Philadelphia. Le Toux, 28, scored 25 goals for Philadelphia and added 20 assists in 62 regular-season appearances the past two seasons. He is back in the Pacific Northwest, where he jump-started his North American career with the Seattle Sounders when they played in the U.S.L.

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